I started to get a little nostalgic for the go-go days of Web 1.0 when doing some Web 2.0 reading. The more things change, and all that. A few similarities really jumped out. These are very high level observations, and somewhat tongue in cheek, but anyway …

Companies with unfeasibly high valuations. It’s easy to point the finger at Facebook because it’s got the profile right now. Unlike some of it’s predecessors who sadly passed on in 2001, it has some revenues, but $30m versus a valuation of $15bn doesn’t do it for me. However, this has been the way the technology industry has moved for as long as I can remember, so that’s not entirely surprising.

Lots of companies all sporting the same shiny ‘new’ business model, i.e. predominantly advertising revenue-driven. As Tricky said, “brand new, you’re retro”. I spent many hours around the turn of the century trying to convince potential clients that the Web was not paved with moon-dollars, or even regular dollars. Just because Google have so far done a good job of selling audiences to advertisers, it doesn’t mean it’s viable for the entire rash of social networking sites out there. It’s also quite apparent that Google has bigger fish to fry in the mobile and Wi-Max areas. Network control > platform > applications still holds true in my opinion, at least to a great extent. Especially if you already have the platform and an audience and some tolerably good applications, and if your telco competition is still struggling with how to ‘do’ IP.

Silly names are back with a vengeance. Again, just because Flickr was bought by Yahoo!, it doesn’t follow that any company with a few vowels missing from a perfectly cromulent word (or a few extra consonants) stands an equal chance of being that lucky.

Finally, on a local level, I came across the scrap that’s blown up over Techludd. Since I’ve spent the last number of years in the murky depths of telco infrastructure, I’m out of touch with the companies and individuals involved. The only thing I would say is that any move to try and alter the mentality that still holds fast in many parts of the Irish technology industry - ‘I hold my business cards close to my chest’ - is a good move, regardless of what banner it’s under.

Crunks 2007: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections

Reuters, the reigning back-to-back champ in this category, didn’t win but did come in second place by calling the Muttahida Quami Movement the “Muttonhead Quail Movement.”

Someone should definitely start a Muttonhead Quail Movement. Perhaps I should. I’ll spend the holiday season mulling over what its aims, aspirations and costume will be.

Edit: muttonhead.com is not available. Registered in 1999! Whoever owns it doesn’t seem to be using it for anything. Luckily muttonhead-quail.com is still available.

Some other flashes of journalistic and / or editorial brilliance -

Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand):

OUR STORY on the price of tomatoes last week misquoted Alistair Petrie, general manager of Turners and Growers. Discussing the price of tomatoes Petrie was talking about retail rate not retail rape. We apologise for the misunderstanding.

Los Angeles Times:

Mexico City newspaper: An article in Wednesday’s Calendar section about an English-language newspaper in Mexico City referred to the many U.S. ex-patriots who live there. It should have said expatriates.

The Guardian:

In a report about the Scottish elections, an editing error led to us wrongly suggesting that John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens’ Unity Party had been accused of allegedly causing a breach of the peace by running amok in a polling station with a golf club (Recrimination follows chaos over new Scots voting procedures, page 5, May 5). We apologise to Mr Swinburne for any embarrassment or distress caused.

The Miami Herald:

In an article on drug smuggling in Venezuela that began on Page 1A Monday, an incorrect photograph was used on Page 2A for jailed drug trafficking suspect Feris Farid Domínguez. The error occurred in the newsroom production process. The photo that was used was that of Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. The Miami Herald regrets the error.

Mischievous spellchecker [from New Scientist]

DO WE detect the hand of the mischievous spellchecker in the following apologetic note from the April issue of Contemporary Sociology? “In the January issue… in the review written by Elizabeth Gorman of The Work and Family Handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches, edited by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ellen Ernst Kossek and Stephen Sweet, the contributors’ last names should have been spelled ‘Karen Gareis’ instead of ‘Karen Agrees’, ‘Laura Beavais’ instead of ‘Laura Beavers’, and ‘Gerstel and Sarkisian’, not ‘Gretel and Sardinian’. We regret the errors.”

I had to save the best until last.

The Guardian:

We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.

“I don’t think that’s any of your damn business,” the Taoiseach replied to tribunal counsel Des O’Neill when questioned about his separation from his wife.

What a contrast that “damn business” snarl is to the infamous RTÉ pass-the-hankies interview when, bordering of tears, the Taoiseach first introduced his personal affairs into this arena.

Irish Examiner

On his blog, Harry McGee apologises for “dredging up a horrible metaphor”. I disagree. I think it’s a wonderful metaphor, even if it has been used before. “[A] rat in an anorak” has a lovely ring to it, and I could see cartoonists having some fun with it

Tom Lehrer - Poisoning pigeons in the park

The Beatnix - Stairway to Heaven

Armstrong & Miller RAF sketches. I stitched all I could find together using Flektor (which doesn’t seem to work particularly well with Opera). One of the clips is repeated as well, I’ll fix it when Flektor stops misbehaving.

24

“Britons have racked up so much debt on loans and credit cards that the total borrowed now exceeds the entire value of the economy, new research shows today.”

“The runaway housing market is the biggest reason why consumer debt has spiralled”

The Celtic Cubling was birthed by debt in 2002. It was a painless birth. Why, oh why do the banks want their money back now? Because Ireland is different, right?

It’s been well covered that some Independent News & Media staffers are fond of appropriating bits of writing they find on the ol’ Internet. I came across some other stuff they might be interested in. On the Internet.

American Press Institute - When does sloppy attribution become plagiarism?

Seattle Times - Plagiarism guidelines

Poynter Online - The Global War on Plagiarism: Fighting the Pirates of the Press

Plagiarism Today - I plagiarised this link from Bock the Robber. Sorry.

Guardian - News reporting faces web challenge, warns New York Times editor. Key quote, ‘”The civic labour performed by journalists on the ground cannot be replicated by legions of bloggers sitting hunched over their computer screens,” Keller said.’ Civic labour indeed.

THE President of the Law Society has attempted to move attention away from rogue solicitors — accusing the media of only focusing on a tiny minority.

But he admitted that new modern standards need to be put in place to reflect the substantial changes in the profession in the last century.

More from the Independent.

Andy Kaufman has a message for the President of the Law Society.

People need to be able to trust their solicitors. Simple as that. The Law Society should be working very hard to alleviate people’s real fears (Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne seem to have run up quite some bills). The Law Society shouldn’t be talking about what they might do, with the implication that once the reassurance is more effective, everything will be fine.

We ourselves must look and see if we can satisfy and reassure the public in a more effective way

Another great example of the general lack of accountability for anything by anyone in Irish public life. As seen in the HSE, this is now systemic and standard. If / when Lynn does reappear, I fully expect to discover that the apparent fraud wasn’t his fault. It was probably the fault of his clients. Or perhaps his postman.

Bears in ill-fitting hats.

I’m tinkering around with a redesign.

Stuff may disappear and reappear without notice. Don’t be scared.

Edit: Getting there … going for a bit more colour this time